Mary McLeod Bethune Letter to Roosevelt
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Context: Mary McLeod Bethune was and African-American activist, educator, and federal appointee. In the 1930s she served as director of the National Youth Administration’s Negro Division, part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. In 1940, Bethune wrote to President Roosevelt calling for Black inclusion in the developing war production effort to support the Allies against Nazi Germany—even as many Americans still opposed U.S. entry into World War II.
June 4, 1940
The President,
The White House
My Dear Mr. President:
At a time like this, when the basic principles of democracy are being challenged at home and abroad, when racial and religious hatreds are being engendered, it is vitally important that the Negro, as a minority group in this nation, express anew his faith in your leadership and his unswerving adherence to a program of national defense adequate to insure the perpetuation of the principles of democracy. I approach you as one of a vast army of Negro women who recognize that we must face the dangers that confront us with a united patriotism.
We, as a race, have been fighting for a more equitable share of those opportunities which are fundamental to every American citizen who would enjoy the economic and family security which a true democracy guarantees. Now we come as a group of loyal, self-sacrificing women who feel they have a right and a solemn duty to serve their nation.
In the ranks of Negro womanhood in America are to be found ability and capacity for leadership, for administrative as well as routine tasks, for the types of service so necessary in a program of national defense. These are citizens whose past records at home and in war service abroad, whose unquestioned loyalty to their country and Its ideals, and whose sincere and enthusiastic desire to serve you and the nation indicate how deeply they are concerned that a more realistic American democracy, as visioned by those not blinded by racial prejudices, shall be maintained and perpetuated.
I offer my own services without reservation, and urge you: In the planning and work which lies ahead, to make such use of the services of qualified Negro women as will assure the thirteen and a half million Negroes In America that they, too, have earned the right to be numbered among the active forces who are working towards the protection of our democratic stronghold.
Faithfully yours,
Mary McLeod Bethune
President
Edited by: Prof. Stephen Duncan
Primary Source Material: Pittsburgh Courier, Saturday, June 15, 1940, page 8.
"Mary McLeod Bethune Letter to Roosevelt" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license by Prof. Stephen Duncan at Bronx Community College.